Game thread XXI – Royals at Yankees

ST LOUIS, MISSOURI - JUNE 5: Noah Cameron #65 of the Kansas City Royals delivers a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals in the first inning during game one of a doubleheader at Busch Stadium on June 5, 2025 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) | Getty Images

The Royals have lost five in a row, including every game on this road trip. But today is a new day. And today could be the start of a long winning streak! It could happen! Manager Matt Quatraro seems to be feeling the pressure to shake his team out of their funk, if the lineup changes are any indication. But we’ll talk more about those at the end, as we usually do.

Noah Cameron takes the bump for KC today. In a lot of ways, he’s looked extremely similar to last season when he finished the year with a 2.99 ERA and came in fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting. He hasn’t gotten as many groundballs or stranded as many runners, so his ERA is a full run higher through his first three starts, but he can work on improving that today against a lefty-heavy Yankees roster. Of course, his worst career start was last year against these same Yankees, so, ya know, it won’t be easy. But it could happen!

Will Warren will go for the Yankees. He throws five pitches, and four of them are graded out very highly. He throws a four-seam fastball, a sinker, a sweeper, a changeup, and a curveball, with the last pitch the only one that doesn’t break stuff-ranking charts. Yet, for all that, he doesn’t throw strikes at a particularly high rate and gets less chase and fewer whiffs than average. Hopefully, he won’t be able to dazzle the Royals too much. He’s made one start against the Royals, last June. He pitched 5.2 shutout innings while striking out 4, walking 1, and allowing 4 hits. If you’re searching for ill omens, allowed the only run in that contest in the eighth inning as the Yankees won it 1-0.